The first title from developer ION Storm is a leftover from 7th Level, now out of the gaming business. John Romero, who made his reputation as a designer at id Software, picked it up for his new company and has had it in development for more than a year.

If ``Dominion'' had been released a year ago, when an early version of the game was on display, it probably would have been received well. But coming in the wake of Cavedog's ``Total Annihilation,'' Blizzard's ``Starcraft'' and Auran's ``Dark Reign,'' ``Dominion'' comes across dated.

The graphics are flat in comparison with the other games, gameplay is cumbersome and tedious, and the AI (artificial intelligence) frustrating.

The game's plot centers on an unknown satellite arriving near the third planet of the Gift system. It is deemed to have vast power, so four races, including humans, wage war for its secret.

There is little differentiation among the four races' resources and weapons. Each race -- Human, Darken, Scorp and Merc -- has the standard array of infantry, vehicles and buildings with one unique unit that has a special trait. Each of the races also differ in ranking of four characteristics: armor, speed, build time and weaponry, thus offering a chance to use different strategy and tactical decisions.

So far, not bad. Graphic display is where things start to break down. The 2-D terrain appears quite like what has come before in other games. Although unit animations are smooth, pixelated animations of the buildings are behind the times, and the mundane music score rounds out an uninspiring presentation.

The interface is easy to get used to with a series of point-and-click buttons allowing you to build, upgrade, move and give commands to your troops as you unfog the terrain by moving over it. Though you can queue mulitple constructions you can only queue one type at a time, which makes for frustrating development and movement.

AI is supposed to be where this game differs drastically from the competition, but it isn't apparent. The game is much too difficult on the easiest settings for beginners and lacks depth of true strategic skill and decision-making at higher levels.

For true fans of the genre, there are plenty of winning titles from which to choose over ``Dominion.''